I was not interested in continuing with reading this book after the first couple of chapters, so I had to stop reading the book.

Unfortunately I was not a fan of this book. I loved the premise of it, but the pace of the plot and the characters felt flat for me.

Wow! When I saw Harlan Coben’s, “Gripping and Unforgettable”, I knew this debut book was going to be good, and Ms. Goldin does not disappoint! I was on the edge of my seat I’m anticipation of what was coming next. Highly recommend this book for those who love suspense!

Sarah Hall has just graduated in the top of her business school class. She thinks it will be a breeze to find a job with her marks. But finding work was more difficult than she imagined. When she finally does find a job, she is at the bottom of the totem pole and has to work hard to get the attentions of her coworkers. Even though she is on an elite team on her fellow team mates don't treat her as such. When a big project comes up and ends up being messed up, everyone's job is on the line, they turn against each other. Some of the team comes together to meet with each other when they get stuck in an elevator. Will they be able to get out alive?

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I read this book over the summer when life was super busy and I was just reading and I didn't have much time to do reviewing or blogging. Here's what I remember:
Sarah was a girl I could really relate to. We've all be in a position where we are the new person at work and having to find our way with a team that has already been established. Sarah is not as strong as the other members of her team, but she has a great head on her shoulders. There were parts of this book that were predictable, but there was a twist that I really didn't see coming.

I really enjoyed this book and I wish that I would have reviewed it sooner. I did take a few notes, but not enough to write the kind of review I normally like to do. I know I liked the book and that it held my attention all the way through. I recommend it to everyone who likes books were the girl is the heroine.

This book had me conflicted for basically it's entirety. On the one hand, I really wanted to know what was going on, how the characters had gotten into this "escape room" predicament and what their secrets were. On the other hand, I was also a bit bored out of my mind. All of the characters were a bit insufferable and while they had their own distinct issues, none of them were likable and I didn't actually care about them, their motivations, or who they were. They were like a means to an end in my opinion.

The story switches between two storylines after the discovery of a dead body. We have the present, known as "The Elevator" where 4 colleagues are trapped inside of an elevator for a supposed team building exercise (an escape room). They have no choice but to participate if they want to keep their jobs, at least that's what they're led to believe. They're all despicable in their own way and I'm pretty sure no one is rooting for any of them. Things turn disastrous pretty quickly and they're left trying to figure out who set them up and how they are going to survive. The other storyline is the past, or rather the past of Sarah Hall, a former colleague of the 4 people trapped in the elevator. We track her from the moment she comes in contact with the finance company, through her gaining employment, and what exactly occurred during her time at the firm and why she's no longer employed (obvious by the fact that she's not in the elevator. The characters reveal that Sarah is actually dead, which we learn from one of the clues, and so now the audience is supposed to be especially intrigued because through Sarah's perspective, we learn she isn't the only person on this team who has ended it up dead it seems.

This book made some promises it didn't necessarily deliver. Yes we get an outcome, but for the most part, it's not that hard to figure out what's happening in the story. I didn't get a lot of thrill from this thriller. There were also mentions of secrets among the characters that we never actually learn. I mean, if something is hinted to be important or pertinent information, shouldn't it come out at some point. There just felt like some holes needed to be filled in and honestly I think the pacing dragged a little. At least I made it through to the end right?

This book was definitely a page turner, almost too much so, as I found myself wanting skip whole parts of the book to get to the end to figure out what in the world was going on! I actually enjoyed the ending quite a bit, more than the majority of the plot, which I did skim read a bit to find out the ending faster. The premise is a group of coworkers that get stuck in an elevator and it becomes obvious pretty quickly that this is a set up, and that its likely they might not survive. Like many other reviewers have said, the characters are kind of unlikeable, they are cutthroat, they are rich, and they want to be richer... but their unlikeability is essentially the point... If you enjoy thrillers, this might be a good one for you!

I enjoyed this book because the premise was so different from other books of its genre. A young woman is struggling to find a job in finance when she meets a man in an elevator who offers her an interview with his major financial company which would allow her to work on Wall Street. What she doesn’t know when she accepts the job is the shady practices going on under her nose and at what lengths her coworkers will go to conceal their secrets. Until one day, they are invited to a mandatory meeting at an elevator escape room. This is not an ordinary escape room, but one that will draw out secrets and maybe even cost some their lives.

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam all had unbreakable plans for the weekend, but their employer summons them for a mandatory team building exercise. Locked in the express elevator, the four investment bankers try to solve the clues of this unexpected escape room so that they can get on with their lives, but as the hours tick by, their situation steadily worsens.



The book opens with a prologue that didn't grab me at all (and a lot of time spent on a character you'll never see again), but a few chapters in I started to figure out how the two stories might be connected and enjoy the read. I'd expected the escape room to be a bigger part of the plot. Instead the book is really about what these four did in the past and alternates between the elevator and previous events involving other characters. The writing kept me entertained and it was different from any of the other thrillers I've read lately.

This was really an enjoyable book for me. I have always been interested in anything that involves an escape room kind of situation and I really enjoyed this book. There were some characters I loved and some I loved to hate, which made it seem rather realistic. It was definitely a book I struggled to put down.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I really, really enjoyed the book. My full review is on: https://aubreysangle8.home.blog/2019/12/30/the-escape-room-by-megan-goldin-a-story-you-wont-want-to-escape/

An executive team building event gone bad. Four high power executives, all of which have a questionable moral compass, are to answer clues to escape the Elevator. Each clue is directed to a specific employee. It’s hard to feel bad for the greedy. Will the escape?

This was certainly a page turner and a fast read. I would have given it 5 stars but some parts of it were slightly unbelievable. All in all, the story was a fun read. It starts with a group of colleagues and their boss entering an escape room which turns out to be an elevator. The story then switches back and forth between the people in the elevator and a new hire to the same firm. She has just graduated business school and finally manages to get a job at the firm. Slowly the reader finds out how the two events are connected. Definitely recommend.

Perfect vacation book to pick up and read in one sitting. You will be questioning how this will end and probably spend your vacation in your room the whole time.

I used to love a good thriller, and this book reminded me why. It was fast-paced and kept me interested. The ending was pretty obvious, but I was curious to see how it ended. I can't say much without revealing anything, but this book is definitely worth a read!

Another NetGalley book, reviewed later than intended. I picked it up as a library book recently--ran out of time--got it again...

At that point, all you can do is hope that the book is going to be worth it. I'd already been disappointed by one I'd done this with; I wasn't ready for a second.

Luckily, it didn't come to that. This is definitely an enjoyable little thriller.

Told in alternating viewpoints, we follow a young woman beginning her career in a very high-class, hard-working, cutthroat investment banking firm... and then as we find as we move on, four of her co-workers, in an "escape room" for "team building" concocted out of an elevator. In Sara's chapters, we learn just how ruthless and cruel life at Stanhope and Sons can be, and just how much one person will be expected to give in order to climb the ranks. In the elevator, we see the four team members slowly devolve into something akin to madness--as almost anyone would be if you were stuck in a confined space with people you didn't really so much as trust, but tolerate. Team building is desperately needed, sure, but it's at the end of a very long list of other things these people need to be taught--or re-taught.

I've seen reviews say that the ending was telegraphed early on, and maybe it's just the speed at which I read, but I didn't feel like it was that obvious. You can start to put the pieces together as the time goes on, but it goes much deeper than I expected it to. There isn't a huge amount of depth to the characters, but in many ways, I think that's a bit the point. Each of them have their Thing that they can cling to and point at to say "yes, here is the area in which I excel" and they haven't really expanded themselves past then. Life at Stanhope doesn't much allow for that. So I understand how shallow our protagonists are.

What I have to emphasize, and I say this any time I run into it and I've enjoyed the book, is that **this is the author's debut novel.** For a debut, this is astounding. Just twisty enough to keep you on your toes, just amusing enough to keep a smile on your face, and just horrifying enough to keep you turning pages because you have to figure out how this all is going to sort itself out in the end. This absolutely makes Goldin a name I'm willing to look out for in the future. Absolutely something I would recommend to anyone in the market for a well-paced thriller with an interesting viewpoint not usually focused on.

Rating: **** (Recommended)

This had the potential to be a very intriguing thriller with a unique (to me) premise, but the plot was bogged down with so many details about each character and their lives, that often I lost interest in the main plot. I found the switching of POV’s to be irritating and unnecessary and would’ve preferred if the author stuck to one timeline or two POV in different timelines instead of varying the perspective each time the story was switched to the present. I found the revenge to be cheesy and really unrealistic, so I was disappointed in the end.

Overall, the unique plot (the idea of being stuck in an elevator/escape room) was the only thing that kept me reading this until the end. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished this.

I could not put this book down! From the very first, the tension builds and builds. The storyline twists and turns in unexpected & surprising ways. I do admit that I guessed the "big surprise" by about halfway through, but it didn't matter. There were plenty more twists to keep me interested. For fans of suspense who aren't totally creeped out by the fact that about 2/3 of the book takes place trapped in an elevator!

With such a suspenseful title, I expected so much more from this book. To be honest, I almost didn't finish it because I just couldn't get invested in the characters or the story. It was relatively clever, and the idea of stepping back in the past to help develop the characters added an element of interest, but I just didn't enjoy this one.

Clever Read


First off, I want to thank NetGalley the publisher and Megan Goldin for putting out such a clever thriller. I read tons of thrillers and this one is one of the better ones written this year. I could have finished this in a day. I stretched this out into two. The story is written in the perspective of the narrator and the coworkers that she worked with. It is seamlessly written that you do not want to put the book down. You finish one section or scenario and you want to keep going until it is fully completed. Next thing you know you are still awake finishing yet another chapter. The book was suspenseful yet light making it a fun fast read. If you are looking for a suspenseful and unique storyline this book is for sure for you. A solid four stars from me.

The writing on this book was pretty cheesy and lackluster, but the plot kept it going and I kept reading to find out what would happen next. I think this would make a great movie though!